3 ms·

Apologies for having done a bad cloning. I represent CIIE - group which is doing the iAccelerator. We definitely can't match what YC has done. We are still open

Apologies for having done a bad cloning. I represent CIIE - group which is doing the iAccelerator. We definitely can't match what YC has done. We are still open to ideas and would love to get your advise and restructure the program. However, we would like you guys to understand the Indian innovation scenario before any suggestions. In a space where there is limited innovation happening, very few university start-ups happening, very few "IT-expert students" creating anything world-class or anywhere closer (other than doing some outsourced software services) - we feel this is a step to try something new to push people into starting-up an innovative company. Our aim is to change the statistics of number of kids starting up out of college. And believe us, if we can't make a huge difference and end up creating 3 start-ups out of this process - we would have succeeded. For those who understand this space better, we would love to have your feedbacks and how we can use this model better. Apologies PG and YC fans (believe me I am one of them), we are just trying to bring some disruption in our innovation system. Look forward to your inputs. Best, Kunal

morbidkk 19y ago
If aim is for tech startups; you must spread this message in enginnering colleges/IITs across India.
- kunalupadhyay 19y ago
  yes doing that...
rms 19y ago
The main criticism was that you enforce draconian working standards. In YC, people work hard because they want to. You say you have a guard to prevent people from leaving. It sounds bizarre.
- kunalupadhyay 19y ago
  Yes, I understand. We were actually kidding. But I guess the message wasn't put across in the right manner. Have changed the text anyways. I thought people would understand that we can't be so cruel and must have been kidding. Apologies for the assumption. Yes, we do provide people mattress next to their workplace - give them the luxury of resting as and when they want. We are trying to be as friendly as possible. Thanks for your feedback. It's not gonna be a jail believe me.
  - rms 19y ago
    :) that's much better. Good luck, these types of programs are important...
    - kunalupadhyay 19y ago
      Ahhhh, thanks for a final word of appreciation. I was all of a sudden beginning to think that we were doing a grave mistake by trying to be innovative about promoting innovation. :)
  - plinkplonk 19y ago
    "I guess the message wasn't put across in the right manner. Have changed the text anyways." As of one minute ago the "changed" text reads, "We don't want you to go to your accommodation before 12 midnight - so we provide you mattresses near your workspace for resting (well, we've got limited resources - can't provide you AC accommodation - so thats the least we can do to ensure that you beat the summers in Ahmedabad). There's anyways a security guard outside your work-area - so you don't get to leave the office before 12 midnight and you don't get to sleep in the office. Attendance happens at 9:30 am every morning. Sundays are off if you have met your weekly goals! (we got to be kidding on this!!) End results are more important to us !! " we don't want you to leave before midnight - check you don't get to sleep in the office - check attendance happens at 09.30 - check Sundays are off if you have met your weekly goals - check Is the "(we got to be kidding on this!!)" supposed to indicate that all the above is just you guys trying to be funny? Just a suggestion from one of the much despised Indian "hackers" who can't think of a business plan without the IIM-A grads chipping in ;-). When you are writing about how your process works, just say what you mean. Don't try to be funny. Writing humour calls for exceptional skill in writing. All this description manages to do is make you sound like lunatics. (Note : I said "sound like". I don't say that you ARE crazy). Just say " we'll pay each founder 200 $ (or 8000 rupees) per month and give you non AC accomodation and an office with PC s and internet connectivity". See? It's that easy. And your whole "YC clone" theme is a bit of a non starter. YC works because as someone pointed out earlier on this blog, It is promoted by PG (and others) who "walked the talk". One of the reasons YC can't be cloned easily is that unless you have people of roughly equal caliber backing it up it makes no sense. People don't join YC's program for the money. A mental experiment. Think of what YC would sound like if it was promoted by a bunch of people with no credentials in either business or programming. Err... we are MBA students and we'll pay you 200 $ a month and make you go through hell (at the least you have to listen to our "humour" ;-) ) and give you ... ummm ... an internet connection. In return you will work your hearts out and try to create a killer startup. Yeah that makes sense ;-) Anyone who can hack can get (with ZERO experience) a 1500 $ / month job in Bangalore with no trouble at all. A couple of month's savings will give them more money than you guys can (and they can work whenever they feel like, with no security guards ;-) ). So what exactly is your value add? Pairing with an mba student? This is not to discourage you from attempting to "incubate innovativeness" . Your deal just doesn't make any sense. But don't let me stop you. If you can get a world class product out of the door in three months with this deal structure , more power to you. We'll wait 90 days and see. (won't we? ;-) ). Finally, "give them the luxury of resting as and when they want" resting when you are tired is not a "luxury" which you "give". It is a basic human right.
ptm 19y ago
A few questions - 1) Do you take a stake in the new formed company ? 2) Why are you offer a stipend ? It's not that expensive living in India, and a dot-com startup doesn't require any funds really. 3) The real strengths of YC, as others have observed, are mentors and a hacker culture. How would you offer that ? 4) Is an IIM the right place to incubate ? 5) A YC like incubator does best in a place which already has a thriving hacker / entrepreneurial culture. Gujarat, BTW, is perhaps the most entrepreneurial state in India. 6) You say that "IIM Ahmedabad students shall work closely with the teams to develop a sound business plan". Is that not a little insulting to suggest that hackers can only hack :) ? After all they are the only ones who understand their product, and can possibly form a business plan.
- kunalupadhyay 19y ago
  Lets not stretch our imaginations too much. We are trying to provide help to hackers with no selfish motives ! With all due respect, our aim is not to belittle the hackers - we respect them and the whole spirit behind the program is to actually encourage them to start-up. Our interaction with a lot of tech start-ups (by tech i don't just mean IT) suggests that often the failure is rarely in development of product - it's often in the ability to understand the market and to penetrate it. We might be mistaken, but we feel that IIMA grads can do a good job on that. A good techie+MBA make a better team than an IIMA grad alone or a techie alone does. Equity: We are a not-for-profit entity and don't plan to take equity at this stage - if we decide to provide additional funding to these start-ups we might. Stipend: Yes, India is cheap. However our target audience is students and young IT professionals - the stipend is a sweetener. You get to work on your idea without having to think about how your expenses get paid. (Indian students typically don't take up RA/TAship in their universities and depend heavily on parental income for their education. So we are trying to provide them with a tension-free environment! Ahh, some would still believe it is a jail uh!!) YC Model: We can't be a YC - if we are trying to be we are probably mistaken. Our aim is to be a group which is trying to make a difference to say the least. There have been no Google or Skype coming out of India - but there have been the Naukri.com and the Makemytrip.coms which are some of the more successful names in the Indian dot-com scenario. If you think that the founders of these can add some value, yes mentors would be there. We'll have regular mentoring and weekly networking dinners where you should expect a few successful entrepreneurs/VCs/investors to be around. We are beginners in this and would love to learn on how we could do this better. IIM/Gujarat - the right place: Its at least a start to make the YCombinator culture more popular in India. Hopefully someone else - in the right city and right environment would do a better job. We'd love to see that happen. Not too sure if IIM is the best place - what else is? Are they ready to do it? We've got the resources to help the budding entrepreneurs - so we are trying. Gujarat, may be quite entrepreneurial, but there are very few hackers around. So we don't limit ourselves to Gujarat.

morbidkk 19y ago

If aim is for tech startups; you must spread this message in enginnering colleges/IITs across India.

kunalupadhyay 19y ago
yes doing that...

rms 19y ago

The main criticism was that you enforce draconian working standards. In YC, people work hard because they want to. You say you have a guard to prevent people from leaving. It sounds bizarre.

kunalupadhyay 19y ago
Yes, I understand. We were actually kidding. But I guess the message wasn't put across in the right manner. Have changed the text anyways. I thought people would understand that we can't be so cruel and must have been kidding. Apologies for the assumption. Yes, we do provide people mattress next to their workplace - give them the luxury of resting as and when they want. We are trying to be as friendly as possible. Thanks for your feedback. It's not gonna be a jail believe me.
- rms 19y ago
  :) that's much better. Good luck, these types of programs are important...
  - kunalupadhyay 19y ago
    Ahhhh, thanks for a final word of appreciation. I was all of a sudden beginning to think that we were doing a grave mistake by trying to be innovative about promoting innovation. :)
- plinkplonk 19y ago
  "I guess the message wasn't put across in the right manner. Have changed the text anyways." As of one minute ago the "changed" text reads, "We don't want you to go to your accommodation before 12 midnight - so we provide you mattresses near your workspace for resting (well, we've got limited resources - can't provide you AC accommodation - so thats the least we can do to ensure that you beat the summers in Ahmedabad). There's anyways a security guard outside your work-area - so you don't get to leave the office before 12 midnight and you don't get to sleep in the office. Attendance happens at 9:30 am every morning. Sundays are off if you have met your weekly goals! (we got to be kidding on this!!) End results are more important to us !! " we don't want you to leave before midnight - check you don't get to sleep in the office - check attendance happens at 09.30 - check Sundays are off if you have met your weekly goals - check Is the "(we got to be kidding on this!!)" supposed to indicate that all the above is just you guys trying to be funny? Just a suggestion from one of the much despised Indian "hackers" who can't think of a business plan without the IIM-A grads chipping in ;-). When you are writing about how your process works, just say what you mean. Don't try to be funny. Writing humour calls for exceptional skill in writing. All this description manages to do is make you sound like lunatics. (Note : I said "sound like". I don't say that you ARE crazy). Just say " we'll pay each founder 200 $ (or 8000 rupees) per month and give you non AC accomodation and an office with PC s and internet connectivity". See? It's that easy. And your whole "YC clone" theme is a bit of a non starter. YC works because as someone pointed out earlier on this blog, It is promoted by PG (and others) who "walked the talk". One of the reasons YC can't be cloned easily is that unless you have people of roughly equal caliber backing it up it makes no sense. People don't join YC's program for the money. A mental experiment. Think of what YC would sound like if it was promoted by a bunch of people with no credentials in either business or programming. Err... we are MBA students and we'll pay you 200 $ a month and make you go through hell (at the least you have to listen to our "humour" ;-) ) and give you ... ummm ... an internet connection. In return you will work your hearts out and try to create a killer startup. Yeah that makes sense ;-) Anyone who can hack can get (with ZERO experience) a 1500 $ / month job in Bangalore with no trouble at all. A couple of month's savings will give them more money than you guys can (and they can work whenever they feel like, with no security guards ;-) ). So what exactly is your value add? Pairing with an mba student? This is not to discourage you from attempting to "incubate innovativeness" . Your deal just doesn't make any sense. But don't let me stop you. If you can get a world class product out of the door in three months with this deal structure , more power to you. We'll wait 90 days and see. (won't we? ;-) ). Finally, "give them the luxury of resting as and when they want" resting when you are tired is not a "luxury" which you "give". It is a basic human right.

ptm 19y ago

A few questions - 1) Do you take a stake in the new formed company ? 2) Why are you offer a stipend ? It's not that expensive living in India, and a dot-com startup doesn't require any funds really. 3) The real strengths of YC, as others have observed, are mentors and a hacker culture. How would you offer that ? 4) Is an IIM the right place to incubate ? 5) A YC like incubator does best in a place which already has a thriving hacker / entrepreneurial culture. Gujarat, BTW, is perhaps the most entrepreneurial state in India. 6) You say that "IIM Ahmedabad students shall work closely with the teams to develop a sound business plan". Is that not a little insulting to suggest that hackers can only hack :) ? After all they are the only ones who understand their product, and can possibly form a business plan.

kunalupadhyay 19y ago
Lets not stretch our imaginations too much. We are trying to provide help to hackers with no selfish motives ! With all due respect, our aim is not to belittle the hackers - we respect them and the whole spirit behind the program is to actually encourage them to start-up. Our interaction with a lot of tech start-ups (by tech i don't just mean IT) suggests that often the failure is rarely in development of product - it's often in the ability to understand the market and to penetrate it. We might be mistaken, but we feel that IIMA grads can do a good job on that. A good techie+MBA make a better team than an IIMA grad alone or a techie alone does. Equity: We are a not-for-profit entity and don't plan to take equity at this stage - if we decide to provide additional funding to these start-ups we might. Stipend: Yes, India is cheap. However our target audience is students and young IT professionals - the stipend is a sweetener. You get to work on your idea without having to think about how your expenses get paid. (Indian students typically don't take up RA/TAship in their universities and depend heavily on parental income for their education. So we are trying to provide them with a tension-free environment! Ahh, some would still believe it is a jail uh!!) YC Model: We can't be a YC - if we are trying to be we are probably mistaken. Our aim is to be a group which is trying to make a difference to say the least. There have been no Google or Skype coming out of India - but there have been the Naukri.com and the Makemytrip.coms which are some of the more successful names in the Indian dot-com scenario. If you think that the founders of these can add some value, yes mentors would be there. We'll have regular mentoring and weekly networking dinners where you should expect a few successful entrepreneurs/VCs/investors to be around. We are beginners in this and would love to learn on how we could do this better. IIM/Gujarat - the right place: Its at least a start to make the YCombinator culture more popular in India. Hopefully someone else - in the right city and right environment would do a better job. We'd love to see that happen. Not too sure if IIM is the best place - what else is? Are they ready to do it? We've got the resources to help the budding entrepreneurs - so we are trying. Gujarat, may be quite entrepreneurial, but there are very few hackers around. So we don't limit ourselves to Gujarat.